CYRUS (s5orusi, (Deb. ko' rech Babyl. Kura ; old Persian Kurush, Gr. pot, koo' ror ; Lat. Cyrus).
The celebrated Persian conqueror of Babylon ( It C. 550, who promulgated the first edict for the restoration of the Jews to their own land (Ezra i:t, etc.). We are informed by Strabo that his original name was Agradates (xv :3, p• 320, ed. Tauchn.) ; but he assumed that of Kouros, or Khouresh (whichever was the most accurate Per sian form) doubtless on ascending the throne. We may perhaps compare it with the Hebrew kheres, which bears the same sense.
But as this Hebrew word signifies a potsherd, a worthless bit of broken pottery, it cannot be the real meaning of the name of the great hero king. Sayce suggests that he took his new name from the river Cyrus, which ran near his capital, Pas argadx ; and adds that it cannot come from a word signifying the sun, as some have said.
(1) Parentage. Herodotus and Xenophon agree that he was son of Cambyses, prince of Persia, and of Mandane, daughter of Astyages, king of the Median empire. Ctesias denies that there was any relationship at all between Cyrus and Astyages. According to him, when Cyrus had defeated and captured Astyages, lie adapted him as a grandfather, and invested Amytis, or Amyn tis, the daughter of Astyages (whose name is in all probability only another form of Mandane), with all the honors of queen dowager. His object in so doing was to facilitate the submission of the more distant parts of the empire, which were not yet conquered; and he reaped excellent fruit of his policy in winning the homage of the ancient, rich, and remote province of Bactria. Ctesias adds, that Cyrus afterwards married Amytis. It is easy to see that the latter account is by far the more historical, and that the story followed by Herod otus and Xenophon is that which the courtiers published in aid of the Persian prince's designs. Yet there is no reason for doubting that, on the father's side, Cyrus belonged to the Achxmenidx, the royal clan of the military tribe of the Per sians.
(2) Records of Cyrus. In his own records he says (Cyl. 20-22) : "I am Cyrus, the king of mul titudes, the great king, the powerful king, the king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Accad, king of the four quarters (of the world) ; son of Cambyses, the great king, king of the city of Anshan ; the grandson of Cyrus, the great king, king of the city of Anshan; the great-grandson of Teispes, the great king, king of the city of Anshan; the endur ing seed of royalty, whose reign Bel and Nebo loved, whose lordship for their hearts' delight they longed for." This genealogical table shows that
his royal ancestry had become thoroughly estab lished on the throne, and that he was the legiti mate heir to the headship of Anshan.
(3) Conquest of Cyrus. Within ten years from his accession (B. C. 559) Cyrus absorbed the Median kingdom. How long previous to this time he had made conquests of minor tribes and peoples we have no means of knowing. In 549 we find (Nab.-Cyr. Chron. col. ii :1-4) : "[His troops] he assembled, and against Cyrus, the king of Anshan . . . . he marched. As for Astyages, his troops revolted against him, and he was seized and hand [ed over] to Cyrus. Cyrus marched to Ecbatana, the royal city; the silver, gold, goods and possessions of Ecbatana he carried forth and brought them to the land of Anshan." This seems to have been a voluntary choice on the part of the Medes of Cyrus as their king, as against Astyages of the Umman-Manda. This throne became hence forth the possession of Cyrus, and formed one of the chief elements in the great empire which he afterwards created. Cyrus occupied the next two or three years in the East in organizing and estab lishing himself in his new realms, Persia in the meantime yielding to his arms.
(4) The Fall of Babylon. In 546 Chron. col. ii: Obv. 15-18). "in the month Nisan, Cyrus, king of the land of Persia, mustered his troops, and below the city of Arbela the Tigris he crossed; and in the month Iyyar to the land of Ish .. its king he slew, its goods he took, and his governor he placed therein." In this western campaign Cyrus was a victor over Crcesus, king of Lydia, and pushed his authority as far as the Egan Sea. This gave him supremacy from the eastern limits of Media, through the upper plains of Mesopotamia, eastern, middle, and western Asia Minor. Further conquests in the East oc cupy his attention until the year 539-538 B. C. The heavy and almost impregnable fortifications of Babylon were left for the last stroke.